Re: Materialism
[Caleb Stegall  02/28 02:56 PM]

One blogger's take:

The issue is not what any particular theorist says in defense of the free market but the practical effect an unduly positive and uncritical view of the market and its effects has on the way all Americans, but particularly conservative Americans who should know better, live. Rod's book is an account of the habits of people, habits formed in reaction to the superficiality and ugliness of the world of disposable and transient goods that modern Americans have made an unduly large part of their life. Likewise, what he is critiquing are the habits of "mainstream" conservatives. That's what has really agitated Goldberg — it's almost as if conservative ideas might mean something for how we should live, and that the "mainstream" conservatives have managed to get it, well, basically wrong. It isn't that there is only one precise lifestyle for conservatives, but that conservatives, if they took their own ideas seriously, really should live in a broadly defined way that is not at war with creation, their own nature or their natural affinities. A materialistic lifestyle, whether lived by fine, church-going folk or not, is a life lived in conflict with those three things. Stated broadly, lots of conservatives will shout their agreement. Yes, don't be at war with creation — that's a crazy, leftist thing to do! But do they follow up on that agreement in their own way of life? Many don't, and that's Rod's point. Goldberg can talk about stolen bases until the Kingdom comes, and he won't be able to evade this reality.